Greenfield Buzkashi Team

Today I came across the BBC's Day in Pictures page. While most of the pictures made me feel warm and fuzzy inside, I found something truly spectacular in picture 4. Apparently this is the season for Buzkashi in the steppes of central Asia and Afghanistan. What is Buzkashi you ask? Only the most rad game that side of the Urals.

From what I've gathered, two teams of mounted players try to throw a mangled goat carcass into a circle drawn in the sand (the "Circle of Justice"). Wikipedia says: "Competition is typically fierce, as other players may use any force short of tripping the horse in order to thwart scoring attempts... Games can last for several days, and the winning team receives a prize, not necessarily money, as a reward for their win." GAMES CAN LAST FOR SEVERAL DAYS! Without sleep, naturally. Real men don't take breaks from sport. So if you can picture it: two teams of mounted men, armed with riding crops and whatever else they have, beating each other unmercifully while trying to throw a headless goat carcass into the end zone. Afghanistan: where men are still allowed to be men.

If you're trying to picture what kind of a prize would be worthy of that sport, I have your answer. In Afghanistan this prize is usually a bathtub full of virgin blood in which the winners are allowed to bathe (in ancient times, it was usually the losing team's virginal daughters that filled the tub). In Uzbekistan, the prize is to be torn limb from limb by wild horses (a great honor). In Kyrgyzstan, they find out who has the largest scrotum on the losing team, and then the leading scorer of the winning team gets to tear his opponent's testicles clean off with his teeth. In the purer form of the game no anesthesia is used, but today some opt for it because the pain is unimaginable.

So, I would like to announce the creation of the Greenfield Buzkashi Team. It's going to be an intramural team and we'll hold tryouts at some point in December. You are to show up in Beacon Field with your own horse (as horses for this sport can run between $5,000 and $10,000 I simply cannot provide for everyone who wants to play) and riding crop. Pads are frowned upon. I'm going to get some jerseys made up, which I think will feature a flaming goat skull bleeding from its eyes. And, I don't think a goat skull is a terrible mascot for Greenfield either. Our high school is the Green Wave despite the fact that we're 100 miles from the ocean. At least we have goats. I think. It can't be too hard to get one to bleed from its eyes while on fire.

Technorati tags: Buzkashi, Afghanistan, Mounted Sports, Badass

Takesies Backsies

Dear Benjamin,

Thank you for your email. We are delighted to inform you that since you have Intermediate Japanese skills, we are able to accommodate your start date to December.

Please note that if you decided to come in December, we cannot guarantee your location. This is due to the fact that you would most probably be covering a vacancy arisen due to unforeseen circumstances (i.e. teachers having to go back home due to family emergencies and so on)

Naturally, at the end of your first contract (March 20089 and pending satisfactory performance and your wish to renew, you would be able to move to a different area in Japan, perhaps closer to your original preferences.

If you are happy with this arrangement, I would be grateful if you could email your documents as soon as possible. It currently takes approximately 26 working days to obtain a certificate of eligibility, and training is set for December 18th, so we are running out of time. (We also have an early January training session)

I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Kind Regards,

X

So, nevermind then. December is an option and I've already told Interac that I'll take it.

NOVA's non-future

A lot of coverage has been dedicated to NOVA at the Japan Times. For a fluff piece on how faculty and staff plan on coping with the school closings, see this article (Jisu Oh is slammin' like a late night snack).

A friend of mine in Japan, a former student, said this two weeks ago:

"Well, I went to Nova 2 days ago, 17th Oct and at that time all classes were closed. But when I got there, Nova staffs were there and they told me that it could be open in 2 days, so keep coming. Anyway, today it was supposed to be open as they said and I called Nova to make sure that it was open. But it’s kept close and nobody was still sure from when all classes would be open like before. It might be open tomorrow, but who knows it? So we’ve been recommended to call the school whenever we plan to go. It really sucks.

Anyway, since that time, I haven’t seen any of the Nova teachers, so I really don’t know what they are all doing. But I can imagine they are sad, disappointed, worried, disturbed and upset. In fact, they have that serious problem to live here."

I talked to an Australian friend of mine on October 26th and she said the following when I asked her about the closings:

"I am sad to leave.. and particularly with how this all ended.. i didn't even have a chance to say a proper goodbye to many of the students.

Actually, to give you the most updated news.. today they have just closed the doors on Nova. So now, no one can go to work even if they want to. Basically the president of the company has just been fired (no idea why it has taken this long for it to happen) and now Nova is in the hands of the jap govt. It'll probably be closed for the next 10 days. I dont think there's anything we can do but to wait and see..."

So things haven't been going well. Brucie was accepted, deferred, and then told to forget about coming. That sucks but it looks like he avoided a huge pain in the ass by missing all of this. As did I by the way. For those of you who haven't been following this, the METI in Japan accused NOVA of breaking Japanese contract law and ordered them to stop signing up new students. Signing up new students is how NOVA makes almost all of its cash, so in a short amount of time they had serious cash flow problems. They started paying all their employees late, and then recently, not at all. To compound their problems, the former CEO Sahashi Nozomu, just decided to disappear when all these problems surfaced. A week or two ago the senior most executives at NOVA all quit over their inability to even get a hold of the guy. The Japanese government has stepped in and assumed control of NOVA to try and reach a settlement with its former employees. I can't be bothered to look online for breaking news so that's all I've got.